TIRANA, Oct. 6 – More than a dozen of big enterprises including several oil companies and a commercial centre in Albania have been placed under bankruptcy procedures, according to a report published by the tax administration.
Another report by Open Data research centre shows six of these companies have had their assets seized because of failing to pay off the huge loans taken out from local banks.
The City Park commercial centre is the biggest enterprise under bankruptcy procedures and seized assets because of defaulting on a 3.7 billion lek (€26 million) loan from several local banks.
City Park, a shopping center outside Tirana located in the Tirana-Durres highway opened its doors in 2009 but the crisis Albania has been facing in the past few years and fierce competition from the opening of a new larger shopping center later in 2011 seem to have led the company which built and managed it into bankruptcy.
Last March, an auction to sell the commercial centre situated outside Tirana at a price tag of 24.8 million euros failed.
Taci Oil, on oil company owned by former oil magnate Rezart Taà§i, has also been seized after a reported 1.8 billion lek (€12.7 million) in unpaid loans from several commercial banks.
The report unveils seven former big taxpayers currently under bankruptcy procedures and seized assets owe banks 7.18 billion lek (€50.6 million) in non-performing loans which have been classified as lost.
Under Albanian law, the country’s tax administration is obliged to ask courts for the initiation of bankruptcy procedures two years after companies shift into inactive status at the National Registration Centre, or in case the claimed tax obligation has been declared uncollectable.
The tax administration can also seek bankruptcy procedures for companies with asset losses for three consecutive years and enterprises which have not paid taxes in two years.
